“The continuing quarterly increases, even though small, confirm the recovery course of the real estate sector in Cyprus as other related indicators show,” the bank supervisor said in a statement. Both apartment and house prices rose a quarterly 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

Home prices also rose 0.2% in January to March compared to the same period last year, which is the first annual increase in quarterly home prices over the past seven years, the central bank said. Apartment prices rose an annual 1.5% and house prices rose 0.3%.

In Nicosia district, house prices rose in the first three months of the year for a third consecutive quarter by a quarterly 0.2%, Limassol by 0.9% and Famagusta district by 0.1%, the central bank said. In Larnaca and Paphos, quarterly prices fell 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.

House prices in Limassol rose an annual 0.9% in the first quarter for the first time since the third quarter of 2010, the central bank added. In all other districts, house prices fell on an annual basis. In Famagusta, house prices fell 3.7%, in Larnaca 0.8%, in Paphos 1.4% and in Nicosia 0.1%.

“These annual drops are slowing down and it is expected that should the real estate sector recovery continue, that they will rise in the near future,” the central bank said.

Apartment prices rose a quarterly 1.4% in Limassol in the first three months of 2017, remained unchanged in Larnaca and Famagusta and dropped in Paphos and Nicosia by 1.5% and 0.1%, respectively, the central bank said.

On Wednesday, the Cyprus division of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that house and apartment prices rose a quarterly 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively, in January to March.

Source: Cyprus Mail